


Liquid sky

by vanishing_apples



Category: Granblue Fantasy (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, beach episode kinda, everything is ok now, revived lucifer, you can't fix self esteem issues in a oneshot but they try and make progress
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 10:12:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15410676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanishing_apples/pseuds/vanishing_apples
Summary: In boundless azure where others would see liberty, Sandalphon perceived only bondage.





	Liquid sky

**Author's Note:**

> BGM to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6ND5uBMSIY  
> It would be ideal to have this in the background as you read because that's how I threw this together.

A young Sandalphon spent his days gazing at the ever-blue sky of his artificial paradise, eyes tracing tufts of cotton-like vapour listlessly drifting in and out of his vision. Once in a while, they would merge into a storm cloud - a blinding white pillar woven from divine light that loomed intimidatingly overhead. Dazzling in its purity, awe-inspiring in its holiness, but also terrifying from crackling electricity brewing beneath its tender exterior. The storm cloud was also an effective reminder of the nature of Sandalphon’s sky - the only one he knew - that despite its illusory vastness, it was still an expanse neatly shaved at the corners, only as wide as the palm of his creator’s hand.

Two millennia later, Sandalphon was allowed a glimpse of his new aquamarine cell. He was meant to immediately drift off to slumber the moment he entered the seraphim cradle’s liquid bowels, but didn’t. The rebellious angel was awake just long enough to feel water cling to his skin, see azure flood his vision and a painfully nostalgic warmth wrap itself around him - sensations akin to re-entering the electric cradle of his genesis, like a wayward child returning to its mother’s womb: simultaneously comforting and terrifying in the claustrophobia it induced.

He would soon be relocated from one space of blue confinement to the next, his last one truly endless and the most formidable of all. The sky weighed heavily on his small shoulders with every decade of Lucifer’s long legacy; every suppressed utterance of his humble, personal desires; and an entire world’s worth of expectations for one bound by the supreme primarch title. An inescapable reminder of tainted memories and unforgivable sins. In that limitless canvas of azure where others saw liberty, Sandalphon had only perceived bondage.

It was thus only natural of Sandalphon to instinctively go limp when he was pulled underneath the turquoise waves. Overwhelmed by a frightful combination of all his past prisons: the sun a brilliant entity above the waters shining down at his puny self as the storm clouds of his past - utterly magnificent as it was out of his reach; the cocoon’s suffocating pressure; endless cobalt surrounding him on all sides as the skies - the ocean’s liquid shackles were an entirely different beast. Sandalphon was soon lying suspended in a slow descent for the waters’ frigid, lonesome depths. The dimming sun’s warm caress on his cheeks grew fainter by the second.

Until it was eclipsed by an majestic expanse of white feathers. Sandalphon eyelids slid open in response to familiar light creeping beneath them, flaring from behind a haloed figure. He did not dare reach out, half fearing it to be a mirage that would dissolve from the slightest graze of his fingertips, half feeling himself to be unworthy. It was fine at this distance, basking in the mere afterglow of that hallowed light grown sullen from the water’s chilled embrace. 

But the hand reaching for Sandalphon did not passively wait for him to return its hold this time. Strong fingers curled decisively around his wrist, pulling him into folded wings and welcoming arms - into the comforting bosom of rose-tinged dawn. His eyes were stinging. He chalked it up to being the fault of salt-laden seawater, but failed to account for the lump in his throat. Sandalphon’s arms encircled Lucifer’s waist, clinging on for life - not his own, but one immeasurably more dear. He never even realised how brown wings had instinctively unfurled to envelope Lucifer in reciprocation. Cradled in a mixed cocoon of brown and white feathers, they gently floated back up to the surface.

\-------

“What were you even thinking, swimming with all your wings out like that?”

Sandalphon scolded once they had returned to shore. He tried to sound irritated, but the humid summer air felt heavy flooding his lungs and the blistering heat caused him to feel faint, draining any semblance of motivation out of his voice. It didn’t seem to matter, as Lucifer hung his head in seemingly genuine guilt anyway.

“You could’ve been so much more easily pulled away by the currents…” Sandalphon paused upon seeing the rare expectant look on Lucifer’s face coupled with his top pair of wings slightly stretching out, feathers dripping. “And please, don’t shake water out of your wings here, you’ll drench all the towels.”

“Got it. I’ll do it over there, then.” 

Lucifer briefly headed off to wring water out of his feathers by shaking all six wings simultaneously, causing a small shower of seawater to fly from his back. Sandalphon bit his lower lip in equal parts amusement and exasperation at the sight of Lucifer’s wet, ruffled feathers sticking out in unceremonious angles. Treating all that would be a pain. 

“Turn your back this way, please.” 

Sandalphon said, to which Lucifer happily complied, anticipation virtually sparkling in gentle azure eyes. He was tempted to lean back into the comfort of Sandalphon’s fingers as they combed through his wings, breaths softly exiting him in relaxation. For quite some time, the waves’ lapping at the shore, fizzling seafoam and the cawing of seagulls occupied the silence between them.

“...When my consciousness was in purgatory, I had a recurring dream of you falling into the sky.”

Lucifer suddenly started, his voice distant in remembrance. It took Sandalphon a while to realise this was his attempt at answering the rhetorical question raised earlier.

“Every time, no matter how rapidly I flapped my wings, you would be swallowed up by the endless blue just before I could reach you. I guess seeing you pulled into the ocean was terribly reminiscent of that nightmare, even to the point of my wings manifesting by instinct.”

“...You really didn’t have to feel so compelled to save me.”

Not when he remained so undeserving. It was never Lucifer’s fault, he was the one who had repeatedly refused to be saved until drastic consequences made themselves abundantly clear. 

“...But you saved me.” 

Sandalphon’s hands came to a halt when one of Lucifer’s own reached behind to trace the scar running across the back of his neck. His revival - what Sandalphon simply regarded as overdue repentance, Lucifer instead deemed salvation. It all felt terribly unfair, how Lucifer’s benevolence towards him had remained unwavering through all of his trespasses and fickle loyalty. Even now, white wings sought to wrap around him with utmost endearment, striving to make him feel more precious than anything in the world. 

Sandalphon would finally allow himself to lean into their embrace, placing reverent kisses on the hand and scar that were solid proof of Lucifer’s existence. Lucifer turned his head around to face Sandalphon with a gentle smile - one brimming with genuine warmth and gladness so unlike his usual, diplomatic ones meant for subordinates and Astrals alike. In those kind blue eyes, at last, Sandalphon thought he saw freedom.

“Thank you.” They said in unison.


End file.
